We have cruised a lot and have only found good ballroom dance instruction once. It was on a repositioning cruise and our instructors were wonderful. They were Francine and Andre. Has anyone else had a good experience on ships? Sonia

We have had a great time dancing on ships, particularly Costa cruise lines. When the cruise ships had teachers, they usually focus on basic stuff, so with 5 plus years of private lessons, we don't go to the lessons. I have stopped and watched them a bit. Instructors vary from poor to excellent. Our last cruise had a couple in their 80's, who still were good dancers and were excellent teachers.

It would be difficult to do anything besides beginner level on a cruise ship.Since the experienced dancers would be so diverse in style, experience etc..

My wife and I teach. When cruising we always go to the lessons to help others out. We don't let anyone know we're teachers but it's a fun way to meet people.

We've had some great experiences like:

1. The time the ladies figured out there was someone in the group with experience. The teacher asked everyone to partner up and this rather large lady yelled, "Ahm gonna get me that one!" She then bolted across the room smacking my wife across the back of the head with her elbow sending my wife crashing to the floor. Our friends never let my wife forget it.

2. We met a terrific East Indian couple from Vancouver. There was also a terrific lounge "artist" (and I mean artist not singer) named Sherri Garafalo singing on board. Sherri was/is from South Carolina and everything was "Dahlin' this and dahlin' that". Her favourite singer was clearly Connie Francis.

One night we all went to the lounge. The Vancouver couple went to Sherri and asked if she might know this East Indian song.

"Oh, I know that!" and she proceeded to sign it in perfect Hindi with her South Carolina accent.

Things like that you remember.

We also had the time on a Princess boat (Sun Princess) where they had dancing before the show for an hour. Not the same on every ship but we'd go down and people left the floor to watch our group dance. Eventually, we'd go down and sit in the audience the first 1/2 hour so others would dance but then people knew we were there and everybody would wait for us in the audience. Quite funny. Other boats people don't care and just dance.

I find Princess not bad but you're not going to get major ballroom. We are planning on trying Costa.

Our NC group participated in the first Stardust Dance cruise from Ft. Lauderdale, Jan. 26, 2008. There were 420 dancers in the group and many highly qualified instructors. The instruction was intense and excellent during the day and there was more than ample room on the Costa Fortuna dance floors for all participants in the evening. We will book this cruise again.

My name is Jim Williamson. My company So You Want To Dance is hosting a Dance Cruise on November 2-9, 2013 on the Carnival Fantasy leaving out of Charleston, SC going to the Bahamas and Grand Turk. There will be a dance class every day featuring a different dance, and dancing together as a group after dinner each night. We will provide qualified dance hosts to ensure everyone has a dance partner for the entire trip. Please go to : www.SYWTD.com and leave your contact info to receive a cd brochure of the trip and a deposit form.

Unless it's a dance cruise, the instructors will assume the students have not had any dance lessons before. The emphasis is generally to teach something today that the class can use tonight. On one cruise we took the instructors were dancers from the entertainment troupe. They did a good job, and even showed us a cute pattern in Merengue we hadn't seen before. A greater problem is finding a place to dance on the ship. Our worst experience was a cruise in which the room with the best dance floor had the worst band (except for one evening--and the response from the audience would have told the cruise people something if they had been watching). The best band was playing in the atrium, and people were doing their best to dance between tables and in the corridors. Unfortunately dancing is generally not a high priority with the cruise lines (who have to fit what they offer into limited space and time), even when they offer dance instruction.

"My wife and I teach. When cruising we always go to the lessons to help others out. We don't let anyone know we're teachers but it's a fun way to meet people.

We've had some great experiences like:

1. The time the ladies figured out there was someone in the group with experience. The teacher asked everyone to partner up and this rather large lady yelled, "Ahm gonna get me that one!" She then bolted across the room smacking my wife across the back of the head with her elbow sending my wife crashing to the floor. Our friends never let my wife forget it."

I was approached by a company looking for dance instructors forcruise ships. They were looking for 2 instructors to teach 1or 2 hours a day and to attend dances on the ship and activatethe dance floor. However, they were asking ME to pay THEM forthis "priviledge". Has anyone ever heard of this? As aprofessional, I believe THEY should pay ME for my services. Bythe way, the person who contacted me was not an employee of thecruise line. AND, the conditions were that I would go on a"space available" basis. They could cancel me up to 48 hoursbefore sailing time. What do you think?